Catholic school enrollment steadily falling in New Orleans area and nationally

Not much keeps Archbishop Gregory Aymond up at night. But one thing does make him toss and turn.

Brett Duke/The Times-PicayuneEnrollment has been steadily declining in Catholic schools nationally and in the New Orleans area. Here, students read during religion class at Our Lady of Divine Providence School in Metairie.

In the past four years, Catholic school enrollment in the New Orleans area has been steadily falling, and finding ways to reverse the trend has been the most challenging work of his administration.

"It worries me," Aymond said. "There is a decline and there has been a decline for the last several years, nationally as well as locally."

Catholic schools, like the region as a whole, took a hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But they have continued losing students since then, too. From 2007 into the current academic year, enrollment dropped almost 5 percent, from 40,625 to 38,434, according to the Archdiocese of New Orleans. It's down 19 percent from pre-Katrina levels, and there are 20 fewer schools.

Nationally, Catholic school enrollment has shrunk 20 percent over the past decade, from 2.6 million to 2.1 million students, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. More than 1,600 schools have closed or consolidated, with elementary schools taking the biggest hit.

"It's significant, and it's disturbing," said Sister Dale McDonald, the national association's public policy director. "We're talking about a half million students.

"Our role is to work with the schools, trying to provide some input through marketing tools and strategic planning and help them get a handle on the crisis."

Magnet schools attract students

The reasons for the decline, both nationally and locally, are numerous. Families are smaller, tuition is higher and public charter and magnet schools are more popular than ever as are conventional schools in high-performing public systems such as those in St. Charles and St. Tammany parishes.

The trend is especially surprising in the New Orleans area, where the percentage of students attending non-public schools has historically been one of the highest in the United States.

She said she never imagined taking her daughter, Eva, out of Catholic school until she learned about Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies in Old Metairie, the second-ranked public high school in Louisiana. But while a student at St. Ann Catholic School, Eva took the admissions test for the co-ed Haynes and also applied to the all-girls St. Mary's Dominican High School in New Orleans as a back-up. She won acceptance to both schools and opted for Haynes, where she is now in the eighth grade while continuing her Catholic education with a weekly religion class at church.

"It was not a matter of money," Kleinschmidt said. "It was more a difference in the social and academic environment that single-sex schools cannot offer. We are happy so far with the decision."

Ben Kleban, founder and director of NOLA College Prep Charter School in Central City, said that while most of his students come from other public schools, he's seeing a rise in applicants from Catholic schools.

"I'm hearing more and more from parents that it doesn't make sense for them to pay tuition if we can provide as good or better education than what they are getting at a parochial school," Kleban said.

Lynn Jenkins, admissions director at Ben Franklin High School, the state's top public high school, said the school has 46 new students from Catholic schools this year, up from 29 last year.

But while such schools do offer a good education, Aymond thinks families are leaving Catholic schools for economic reasons. The average tuition for elementary school is $3,400 a year, for high school, $8,000.

"Catholic education is expensive," Aymond said. "We not only provide excellent (secular) education but we provide excellence in the teaching of the Catholic faith. It worries me, as I look toward the future. We do not want Catholic education to be something for the elite. That would go against our whole philosophy.

"We do the best we can in providing scholarships to those who struggle financially," he said, but even the archdiocese is limited in how much it can help. "We have to start thinking outside the box."

That process will begin in January when the archdiocese embarks on a comprehensive strategic plan with experts from Catholic University in Washington.

"We will be looking at trends, what schools may not be viable in the future, the application process, how much we are able to give (in scholarships) in a given year," Aymond said. "We need to think big, and we need to think different."

John Convey and Leonard DeFiore, professors at Catholic University, plan to make several visits to New Orleans as they help dissect every aspect of the area's Catholic school community. In addition to meeting with the top leadership, they want to hear from pastors, teachers, principals, parents and students.

"We'll have a number of public meetings," said Convey, who has done similar work in other cities. "We'll ask people what from their perspective are the challenges and the problems."

Aymond will then appoint a steering committee to work with Convey and DeFiore, and together they will develop a set of recommendations for the archdiocese.

"What we bring mostly is a process for generating good solutions," Convey said. "It will probably take a year, maybe longer. New Orleans isn't typical because of Katrina."

Among other issues, they will look at the demographics of each area of the archdiocese to determine the possibility for future growth and the need for further school consolidation and closings.

"We want to make sure we do as much consultation and listening as possible," said Convey, who worked on a similar study in Mississippi. "In Biloxi, we ended up recommending that they build a new high school, which they did."

Brett Duke/T-PFirst-grade teacher Susan Cobb works with students at Our Lady of Divine Providence.

Enrollment push

In the meantime, the archdiocese will work to boost enrollment, from increasing advertising to pushing open house attendance.

"We have made conscious and tangible efforts to put the word out," Aymond said, "to remind people that Catholic schools are available, what their purpose is and invite them in."

McDonald said she expects to see a greater emphasis on fund-raising, with proceeds dedicated to scholarships.

"High schools are very good at that but the elementary schools really don't do that, and we'd like to see more of an emphasis on elementary alumni giving," she said.

Aymond said he is convinced that such efforts could reclaim families who are leaving Catholic schools for financial reasons.

"We, as the bishops of the country, put out a statement in strong support of Catholic education being available and affordable to all," Aymond said. "I believe in that statement. There is something unique and valuable about Catholic schools, something children cannot get anywhere else."